I'm always in awe of articles like this one where people describe their workflow with the help of mindmaps, flow charts, class diagrams etc. and where they detail meticilous (self-written) extensions or scripts for categorization, readability etc.
I usually feel pretty bad after reading them because they make me realise that I'm a lazy piece of shit who just bookmarks stuff and never reads any of it afterwards.
Mark All as Read.
Congratulations on Inbox Zero achievement.
The only thing that stuck for me from getting-things-done was the 2 minute rule. Or the 'its quicker to do the thing than to manage the task via a complicated process' rule. Even then there every time I do a cleanout in Pocket there is stuff I dont even want to waste the 2 minutes on. Then there is the stuff older than say 2/3 months - I am probably not going to go back to either, but nice to have it in the search index all the same.
And that is how I am lazy, bookmark stuff and then never read it afterwards.
Different strokes for different folks. All depends on what you're doing, what you're ignoring, what you should be doing, and what you want to be doing. Once you can be honest with yourself, priorities become clear.
As long as you keep moving in the long-term, it's OK, just remember to make time for yourself. This is where a lot of people focused on productivity inevitably burn out.
> I'm always in awe of articles like this one where people describe their workflow with the help of mindmaps, flow charts, class diagrams etc. and where they detail meticilous (self-written) extensions or scripts for categorization, readability etc.
Thanks for your kind words. It took me years to find the almost perfect workflow - at least for me (I still have some ideas how to automate several things even more).
I'm a heavy Emacs user but I thought sharing some diagrams might visualize more the described process. Also for non-techies.
I look at this the opposite way that you are: I usually consider these to be solutions looking for problems.
I don’t even think that reading articles on the web is a particularly good use of time (yes, even when they’re informative!), and this person managed to turn it into a job with business logic and network diagrams and everything.
Nice! I'm far past the point where I have any chance of ever clearing up my-list without just re-creating my account and starting from scratch. Last time I did some rough calculations, I've ended up with months worth of non-stop reading. Glad to know other people are doing better!
As for Pocket itself, I cannot imagine my life without it. I pay for the premium purely to support it (I don't really use any of the premium features). But I wish I could extend it! There's all sorts of little things that I would've loved to have, but even with the recently-improved update schedule I'm not getting my hopes up.
I'm in a similar boat. I use pocket almost exclusively when I'm travelling. It works really well for that but I'd love to extend it. Eg download and store video content, or permit tagging when submitting URLs via email, automatic tagging, ...
I am working on something similar to Pocket: https://getsavory.co/. It's early days for Savory -- you can only save links from Chrome so far.
After you install the extension, you simply bookmark your tabs (using the keyboard shortcut or clicking the star icon) and they show up in Savory. The app is centered around tags and we are planning to add more features depending on what users want. I would love to get feedback if you want to give it a try.
In a very similar situation. On the off chance any body from pocket is reading this, I'd kill for the ability to save a pdf! I read aot of research papers and I'd love a way to save and reference them later.
I know that when you do the math, you end up with a huge list. The trick is to focus on one little portion of your reading list (the next bucket in my post).
Some months ago I've also realized I had items in my list from 2017. But I didn't read them. You don't have to read everything. Just focus on what currently has your attention: a specific event, a topic, just sth that's interestingly for you now. This way you'll manage to read more.
Again: I think the goal is not to achieve inbox zero. The goal should be to just read/learn more.
Part of what helps me with having saved more than I will reasonably read is being okay with missing out. I generally accept that I will die, which is liberating. I’m not yet to the point of not saving the article in the first place, as I hold out hope/plans for setting up a way to easily search all I’ve saved. I use Anki for phone numbers and addresses and language and other things, and I let that slide sometimes, too, and focus on positive reinforcement whenever I practice whatever I find valuable (per BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits).
Side comment: my math professor in college (a logician Simon Thomas) shared a math puzzle with us about a hydra that grows copies of her heads when cut off according to some math rule. The process made it seem like there would be no way to ever kill the hydra, but our professor said there was a proof that you could, just by working through one head at a time (even randomly).
Many years later, while drowning in links (reading one article made me bookmark several more), this story gave me hope that I could reach inbox zero just by reading, undaunted by the growing backlog.
17 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 49.5 ms ] threadThe only thing that stuck for me from getting-things-done was the 2 minute rule. Or the 'its quicker to do the thing than to manage the task via a complicated process' rule. Even then there every time I do a cleanout in Pocket there is stuff I dont even want to waste the 2 minutes on. Then there is the stuff older than say 2/3 months - I am probably not going to go back to either, but nice to have it in the search index all the same.
And that is how I am lazy, bookmark stuff and then never read it afterwards.
As long as you keep moving in the long-term, it's OK, just remember to make time for yourself. This is where a lot of people focused on productivity inevitably burn out.
1. Assign yourself a reading task on a whim.
2. Call yourself a “lazy piece of shit” for not doing those carelessly-assigned tasks.
3. Avoid your reading list because opening it brings up emotions of shame.
Thanks for your kind words. It took me years to find the almost perfect workflow - at least for me (I still have some ideas how to automate several things even more).
I'm a heavy Emacs user but I thought sharing some diagrams might visualize more the described process. Also for non-techies.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/88adya/death-by-1000-tabs-co...
I don’t even think that reading articles on the web is a particularly good use of time (yes, even when they’re informative!), and this person managed to turn it into a job with business logic and network diagrams and everything.
As for Pocket itself, I cannot imagine my life without it. I pay for the premium purely to support it (I don't really use any of the premium features). But I wish I could extend it! There's all sorts of little things that I would've loved to have, but even with the recently-improved update schedule I'm not getting my hopes up.
Can anyone recommend a hackable alternative? I found https://alternativeto.net/software/pocket/?license=opensourc...
After you install the extension, you simply bookmark your tabs (using the keyboard shortcut or clicking the star icon) and they show up in Savory. The app is centered around tags and we are planning to add more features depending on what users want. I would love to get feedback if you want to give it a try.
Some months ago I've also realized I had items in my list from 2017. But I didn't read them. You don't have to read everything. Just focus on what currently has your attention: a specific event, a topic, just sth that's interestingly for you now. This way you'll manage to read more.
Again: I think the goal is not to achieve inbox zero. The goal should be to just read/learn more.
Many years later, while drowning in links (reading one article made me bookmark several more), this story gave me hope that I could reach inbox zero just by reading, undaunted by the growing backlog.
https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/undergrad/Activities/Lectures...
My personal strategy is to add things to Pocket or bookmarks, and then, if a year later I'm still interested in reading it, I'll read it.
I augment pocket with buku, and I created aliases in bash for quick searches from the cli. A simple cmd-click on the url in iTerm and the url opens.
I’m still trying to get to that perfect information management utopia but at some point I may make a post about what works for me.